Renee Kopowski, a Popeyes spokeswoman, said the franchisee has been working with Goode for more than a year “to address her concerns.” Kopowski declined to discuss the details of the litigation. The franchisee couldn’t immediately be reached.

“We put every precaution in place in the restaurants to meet the highest food safety standards,” Kopowski said. “We take it extremely serious when a guest complains.”

The New World screwworm fly lives off the flesh of open wounds of warmblooded animals. The larvae, once hatched as maggots, can dig close to two inches into a wound.

The lawsuit said the screwworms entered her digestive tract and laid eggs, which she says embedded in the interior lining of her small intestine. When the eggs hatched, they infested her body and began to eat her “alive from the inside-out," according to the lawsuit.

Patrick Stolmeier, Goode’s San Antonio lawyer, said his client became ill and as a result couldn’t work. She ended up losing her business, her house and vehicles, he said.

A spokeswoman for the city's Metropolitan Health District, Carol Schliesinger, said if there was lab work done it is considered health-protected information and would not be publicly disclosed.